Unable to determine if the computer '' exists in the domain New-Cluster

PowerShell Help
1

I am trying to run the New-Cluster command via staf to create a cluster on (Windows server 2012 R2, having failovercluster role enabled) and Powershell version is 3.0. Tried 2 different ways but none of it is working for me. When I am passing session parameter to invoke-command, its able to find New-Cluster cmdlet, but when I try without session, it is not able to find the cmdlet. Here is the snippet of both methods:

Staf “start shell command” way When I use this method, I encounter the error as seen below: staf process START SHELL COMMAND :187:invoke-command -scriptblock Error I get is as seen below:
New-Cluster : The term ‘New-Cluster’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable
program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
Using PSSESSION way : staf process START SHELL COMMAND :221:$ps = new-pssession; invoke-command -session $ps -scriptblock New-Cluster command executes, but it fails with error as seen below :
New-Cluster : Unable to determine if the computer ‘’ exists in the domain ‘’.
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (New-Cluster : U…XXXXXXXX’.:String) , RemoteException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError
+ PSComputerName : localhost

An operations error occurred.

At C:\XXXXXX.ps1:7 char:1

  • New-Cluster -Name $cluster -Node $nodes -StaticAddress $staticaddress
  •   + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [New-Cluster], ClusterCmdletException
  + FullyQualifiedErrorId : New-Cluster,Microsoft.FailoverClusters.PowerShell.NewClusterCommand

I don’t want to use session parameter, is there any way by which we can use the non-default modules for remote-command invocation. Can someone please suggest if I am missing any needed input or please suggest if I should try some other method to attain the expected result.

Thanks,
Vivek Baviskar

2

According to the documentation, the module FailOverClusters is available on Windows 8\2012 and above. You would need to run the command from one of these OS’s for the module to be available. If you are on a Windows 8+ computer, you’ll need to import the module before it will be available, Windows 2012 does it automatically for you.

Import-Module FailOverClusters
New-Cluster ....

As far as the error you are seeing, take a look at this:

The error looks very similar to the renamed cluster issue. When you create a cluster, the cluster name is created as a Active Directory computer object, so if you rename the cluster it doesn’t rename the computer account.

3

Thanks Rob for instant reply.
I am executing New-Cluster cmdlet from linux client using STAF on the Windows 2012 R2 server, this server has failoverclusters module installed.

I am creating a fresh cluster, no issue of stale entry in DNS or AD.

My requirement is to create cluster remotely (from linux client) on the server (Windows 2012 R2) using STAF.

Please let me know if you need more information from my side.

Regards,
Vivek